This is a good post on optimal monetary policy by Scott Sumner. He says the following: I’ve often argued that the supposed “welfare costs of inflation” are better thought of as the welfare costs of volatile or excessive NGDP growth. It is good to see this assumption shown transparently – if this is indeed the […]
With Graeme Wheeler set to take over as RBNZ govenor on the 26th of this month, it is clear that a new PTA will be signed. Westpac did an excellent piece discussing this. I’d suggest reading it. Some key points I took out (and agreed with, so was easy for me to pick them up […]
I remember when I was a 7 year old sitting around at Kio Kio school and the teacher pulled out the five w’s and an h: Who, what, where, when, why, and how. They were repeated constantly, and we were told that these were questions we should repeat all the time. Now at 7, we […]
I see via Stuff that women have to pay more for haircuts. This is true – in fact there are a number of service related areas where the woman’s version of that service costs more than the man’s version. Undeniably, we are seeing price discrimination at work. Now I’m not terribly against price discrimination – […]
As expected, the US Federal Reserve announced QE3 early this morning NZ time. In the statement, they commit the the purchase of mortgage debt people expected (carrying on for an undefined period of time), they state they will keep the cash rate exceptionally low until at least mid-2015 (which was anticipated) – but they also […]
I tend to avoid criticising other economists, especially inside New Zealand. However, the BERL-NZ First report into inflation targeting has crossed a threshold where I feel saying nothing would be more inappropriate than voicing my disagreement. I have discussed the issue on my work website here. In that article I solely discuss the idea of […]